Vacuum cleaning devices operate using the fundamental principles of fluid dynamics.
Most vacuums comprise a rigid outer housing that contains a motor, an air impeller, and a dust and dirt filter as well as a collection/reservoir which is most often in the form of a disposable filter bag. The housing defines an air entry port to which a hose assembly is mounted. In operation, dust, waste, dirt and debris pass through the hose and into the housing where the dust, waste, dirt and debris are collected while filtered air is forcefully pushed out of the housing into the ambient environment. The motor which spins the air impeller, transfers an air load from the air entry port, (which is a terminal end of the hose), to an air outlet port which is the exhaust. The transfer of the air load from the inlet to the exhaust creates a region of low pressure within the housing and the pressure differential creates suction whereby particles, debris, dirt and dust are propelled toward the lower pressure region through a medial channel defined by the hose. The greater the pressure difference between the region of low pressure and the region of ambient pressure, the greater the suction.
Most car wash facilities, and other facilities for cleaning motor vehicles provide customer access to coin operated vacuum devices that are used by customers to clean the interiors of vehicles. The car wash vacuums typically include an elongated hose that communicates with the vacuum housing and the hose terminates in a suction head which a user manipulates over and across seats, carpets, dashboards and the like inside the vehicle so that dust, debris, dirt and the like is removed from surfaces, carpets, seats, floors and the like.
As most individuals of driving age know, over periods of time, loose change, and perhaps dollar bills are lost, dropped, or otherwise inadvertently disbursed through the interior of the vehicle, between the seats, between the cushions, under the seats, under the floor mats and the like. Thereafter, when a vehicle is being cleaned with a vacuum, the suction head is inserted between the seats, between the cushions, under the seats, under the floor mats and the like, and in the course of such vacuuming, loose change, and perhaps dollar bills are picked up and sucked into the suction head and thereafter moved through the hose into the vacuum housing and to the reservoir. Although in some cases the vacuuming up of loose change may be intentional, most of the time the vacuuming of such valuables is unintentional and probably unknown because of the location of the change and the manipulation of the suction head.
Heretofore, when such change and valuable items were vacuumed up in carwash vacuum apparatus, the valuable items and change were deposited into the dirt and debris reservoir within the vacuum housing. On a periodic basis, the operator or maintenance person of the vacuum would empty the collected contents of the reservoir into a trash receptacle and in the course of doing so would also “throw out” or otherwise dispose of the coins and valuables that were within the debris.
If an owner/operator of a carwash facility having powered vacuums wanted to retain the coins and other valuables, the process required the owner or operator to manually sift through the dirt, debris and waste collected within the container/receptacle. Such a process is manual, dirty, smelly, unsanitary and time consuming.
Therefore, there remains a need for an apparatus that allows a user to easily, quickly and sanitarily separate vacuumed up debris and waste from a vacuum cleaner while retaining items of value.
As described, some or all of the drawbacks and problems explained above, and other drawbacks and problems not yet recognized, may be helped or solved by the instant invention shown and described herein. The invention may also be used to address other problems not set out herein or which may become apparent at a later time. The future may also bring to light unknown benefits that may, in the future, be appreciated by the novel invention shown and described herein.
The instant invention does not reside in any one of the identified features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of its structures, which give rise to the functions necessarily flowing therefrom as hereinafter specified and claimed.